In Rebel Country

Facing the yellow, colonial-style city hall of Santiago de Cuba one morning last week, 200 well-dressed women rhythmically chanted: "Freedom! Freedom!" Then, as U.S. Ambassador Earl E. T. Smith listened from an office where he was getting the keys to the city, the cry changed to screams for help. Outside, Dictator Fulgencio Batista's police rushed the demonstrators, twisted arms, carted many off to jail. A fire truck was moved up, began pumping streams of water at the women, supporters of Rebel Fidel Castro's revolutionaries holed up in the nearby Sierra Maestra.

As towering (6 ft. 5 in.) Ambassador Smith left the building, he waved to the women, who broke into the Cuban national anthem. Banners appeared, reading: "Stop supplies of arms to Batista." Police ripped the banners from their bearers. Later, obviously shaken by the police brutality, Smith issued a public statement: "I deeply regret that my presence in Santiago de Cuba may have been the cause of public demonstrations." But, requesting the release of those arrested, he added: "Any form of excessive police action is abhorrent to me."

To Batista, criticizing the police was the same as supporting the rebels. The official press accused the ambassador of "meddling in Cuba's internal affairs." SMITH GO HOME! shrieked one headline.

Batista's nervous alarm at Smith's tour was a mark of the dictator's slipping strength. Santiago, Cuba's second city, is increasingly rebellious. The day of Ambassador Smith's visit a crowd of 50,000 went to the funeral of a rebel colonel killed by the Santiago police. The colonel's body was clothed in his military uniform and his casket decked with the rebel flag of Castro's 26th of July Movement. Showing their strength, the guerrilleros swept down from their mountain hideout and attacked military posts at Bueycito and Minas, carried off arms, ammunition and supplies. Then they set two bridges afire on the highway between Bayamo and Manzanillo, and the next day engaged Batista troops at Peladero. In Santiago the funeral turned into a spontaneous general strike, spreading to neighboring towns. The big Oriente Maceo sugar mill was burned to the ground.

Batista's answer was to slap Cuba under martial law, suspend all civil guarantees, impose an iron censorship. He ordered his troops to force open Santiago's stores and drive its buses. And his police made mass nationwide arrests.

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